Happy New Year! If your resolutions fail, there’s always Chinese New Year in February and Thai/Khmer/Lao New Year in April and well... you can pick any day to be a new you. 💕 Here are my learning lessons from 2018.

Happy Loy Krathong!! 🇺🇸🙏🏾🇹🇭 “Loy” means to float. ”Krathong” is what we use to float our wishes on down the stream toward the mythical Nagas (sacred water serpents) by candlelight, traditionally made from banana leaves. We honor the spirit of water on this day, releasing any stagnation (grudges, anger, regrets, etc) we’re holding onto in our minds and bodies so that we can allow gratitude, joy, and peace to flow into our lives. But how do I celebrate this Southeast Asian Buddhist holiday while being in the United States?

With the holidays approaching, I know that this time can be incredibly difficult for people who are far from their loved ones. Many may also choose to protest Thanksgiving altogether to show their solidarity with people indigenous to this land. How will you be celebrating? And if you grew up with immigrant parents, what were you feasting on this time of the year?

“In a world that profits from your insecurities, loving yourself is a radical act. Your joy is a revolutionary and radical act; anger can be a beautiful thing until it manifests into sickness. Tears are a sign of strength. Stay woke, but not to the point where there’s no room for those who have yet to awaken. And while those who came before you have experienced struggle, remember you come from a long line of resiliency. You are a beautiful badass.”

"We are ALL seeds, trapped in our shellsEagerly waiting to sproutAnd soon, our mother will quakeTo shake us into existence.The clouds will rumble with anger upon truthRain will drop tears to cleanse this painTo remind us this was always ours,and now. is the time. to reclaim."-Jumakae

Some of my succulents didn’t survive, and what felt like a reflection of my life were the resilient plantains growing in this pot gifted to me by Green Wisdom that gave up their fight and wilted away. I dreaded looking at them as I walked up to my doorstep, but still I watered them. Like watering a graveyard, hoping they would reincarnate from the dead to greet me again...

Illness is not seen as an individual problem. It is viewed as an imbalance in which one individual becomes the focus of the healing process that in the end will purify and balance all of the systems and community or family members involved..." -Elena Avila

A doula (/ˈduːlə/), also known as a birth companion or post-birth supporter, is a non-medical person who assists a person before, during, or after childbirth, as well as their spouse and family, by providing physical assistance and emotional support.

My heart pounds as I prepare the script in my mind of how to respond. I've rehearsed this many times before, but even still - the question presents itself as a box, seeing whether I can be stuffed in or not.

"But all we have left of this today is the little tatter called a 'baby shower,' where all the birthing jokes, mother gifts, and genitalia stories are squeezed into a two hours' time, no longer available to the woman throughout her entire lifetime as their mother..."-Women Who Run With Wolves

"Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." – Adyashanti

"The mind spends most of the time lost in fantasies and illusions, reliving pleasant or unpleasant experiences and anticipating the future with eagerness or fear. While lost in such cravings or aversions, we are unaware of what is happening now, what we are doing now." - S. N. Goenka

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.”― Thich Nhat Hanh